Change of heart
by AfterShockk
Summary: (Please review I'd love feedback). Raised by the Fire Nation, Avatar Aang works as the lead interrogator for the POW camp; but when a girl whose name he cant remember enthralls him, he makes a change for the better. Rated T for strong language and graphic depictions.
1. Meet Aang, again

Aang awoke to see a dark sky and feel no warmth in his bed. His bed was laced with the softest silk sheets, thick mink blankets, and push pillows, but the bed still felt cold somehow. He kicked off his covers like he did every morning and went into his bathroom to look in the mirror. He saw a handsome reflection staring back at him, but there was something else there took. He couldn't pin point it, but something about his appearance had changed.

Shrugging it off, her continued to get ready for the day. He donned his black undergarments, pants, and shirt. Next he put on his red and gold top shirt and red pants. He then finished it off with a large red and gold robe that dragged behind him. He stopped and looked in the mirror again. Something was different about him, but he still couldn't pin point it.

Aang looked at his calendar to discover today was his birthday, his least favorite day. It marked his 20th year of being alive, but his 5th year without his family around. He sighed as he knew the palace would make a big deal of it. Something else he hated about being in the Fire Nation. He'd been living here since he was found by some beautiful water tribe peasant years ago and willingly choose to go with him back to Fire Nation to avoid the destruction of the shanty town that was the Southern Water Tribe.

He couldn't remember her name, but she was so pretty it was her brilliant cerulean blue eyes that haunted his sleep. She was sight and her name was…was… Aang sighed, he went through this nearly every morning. This guessing game kept what little bit of himself he had left grounded. Deciding he was ready for the day he headed for his door.

He opened his door to be greeted by his usual Fire Nation servant Lee. Lee was man of 40 years and had a typical Fire Nation servant attitude, subservient. Aang, born a monk wasn't used to this lifestyle initially, but he had developed a comfortability with it as time went on. He even began to pick up the dame habits as the royal family. That'd be, Lord Ozai's family. One of the more deplorable qualities would be his enjoyment for interrogation and his use of profane language.

After being told happy birthday by Lee, he requested his duty list from Princess Azula. Azula was Aang's handler. She was given Aang as an experiment, but uses him like a member of she staff. After teaching him firebending for the purposes of interrogation, she put him to work as lead interrogator at this prison grounds. Aang has served in this position ever since.

On today's list were three room numbers, 112, 114, and 115. At the bottom was "Objective: Location of Chief Hakoda". It is standard Fire Nation practice to refer to POWs as room numbers. It was a way to keep the guards distanced from their subjects and dehumanize the prisoners at the same time.

Aang made his was over to the prison as the sun began to climb the sky. " _112, I'll start there"_ He thought to himself.

After entering the building and making it to the third floor, he immediately grabbed his keys from his office and traveled down the narrow corridor for roughly 100 feet before he reached cell 112. He inserted his key and kicked the door twice instead of knocking this _is_ prison after all.

He opened the door to reveal a man with a single ponytail on his head. He was chained at the ankles and wrists to the ground. Aang could see the loathing in his eyes. However, Aang had a look of disinterest and hatred in his eyes that made the man look away. After Aang was in, the door was shut and Aang leaned against it. After a few minutes of silence Aang spoke.

"Tell me your name" Aang said flatly.

"Go to hell." 112 replied.

Rolling his eyes Aang made two steps toward 112. 112 flinched.

"I'm not going to ask again, I'm just going to burn you if you don't answer my questions" Aang added.

"You don't scare me. You're a sorry excuse for an avatar." 112 said. Having heard this daily, it doesn't bother Aang like it used to all those years ago.

Keeping up with his last sentence and used firebending to heat his left hand and proceeded gently place his hand around 112's neck as the man screamed from the burns his was receiving Aang then applied pressure to his neck choking him with one hand.

Gasping for air, 112 was nearing unconsciousness from the burn and lack of oxygen Aang let go to reveal a large red hand print over 112's throat. It was now dripping blood and the man was painfully gasping for air. It hurt to breathe. The movement of his trachea caused him immense pain that caused him to shiver.

Aang kneeled beside 112 and whispered in his ear "Tell me your fucking name."

After a few seconds 112 responds with "Bato of the…" the pain of speaking became too much for Bato and he stopped his sentence there.

"Southern Water Tribe. Born to Hidan and Katyla." Aang finished. "Oh I knew your name from the moment I saw you. We've met in battle. You must be asking yourself why?"

Bato nodded his head as to agree with Aang

"Because Bato, I want you to know that I own you. You are mine and since you're in my prison you do I say; when I say it; how I say it. Is that fucking clear?"

Bato only nodded again before losing consciousness from the pain.

This is what Aang had become. This is the Avatar Aang, the world's last hope.

With Bato passed out on the ground in his cell, Aang stood up and exited the cell. He looked at his aide Lee who had arrived after Aang had with a pen and pad.

"His name is Bato of the Southern Water Tribe. If I remember correctly, he's Hakoda's right hand man." Aang spoke authoritatively. Lee began scribbling this all down.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this party was captured in Ba Sing Se right?" Aang asked Lee who began to flip back through his notes.

"Yes sir, they were." Lee replied avoiding eye contact.

Like it or not Aang was more than good at his job, he was the best in the nation. No one has produced such fear and exceptional results as the avatar.

Aang turned right and began to walk down the hall he kept talking to Lee who followed along close to Aang. "How many people were caught in this party?"

"Five lord avatar." Lee replied

"Where are the others? I only have cells 112, 114, and 115." Aang questioned

"They died upon arrival lord avatar." Lee said

"Where are there bodies stored?" Aang asked

"The two bodies are still in their respective cells. There is a girl in 113 she died last night and another girl died in cell 116 one hour ago according to the night watch." Lee reported.

"I'll see them now. I can use them as leverage to my benefit. It'll get the remaining prisoners angry and help to break them." Aang stated.

Part of Aang couldn't believe this was him speaking. Sometimes he feels like he's watching himself from some sort of out of body experience. This sentence prompted him to feel the same way, but he couldn't show any sign of remorse it'd destabilize the chain of command and that wouldn't be tolerated by princess Azula.

They arrived at cell 113. Aang opened the door and lit the torch on the wall. At his feet was a short girl with a long hair that stopped at her waist. She wore a long dress that was blue and white. Her clothing was traditional of the water tribe, but her features were typical of an Earth Kingdom girl. Aang determined she of not immense importance.

"Have her body disposed of. She's no one special." Aang said to Lee who scribbled it down.

"I'll see the next dead girl" Aang internally flinched at his lack of respect of these rebels. They are/were people after all. The monk tendencies inside him wanted to offer a prayer, but this was not the time nor place for that.

As they left the cell, he looked back at the girl, she might not have been importance to finding Hakoda, but this was someone's daughter, or sister, or aunt, or best friend. He stopped himself from marveling any further and left the cell.

"Let's move on to 116, Lee," Aang ordered

"Yes lord avatar." Lee replied.

They walked down a few feet and entered a cell on the left labeled 116. Aang entered and gasped at the sight. He knew this girl, indeed, he did know this girl.

AFTERSHOCKK- Hey yall! It's been a while, but I am back. This story just came to me a few days ago. So the general idea is that Aang was never taken back Katara and Sokka so he lives in the Fire Nation and works as the head of the interrogation team at the prison. Notice Azula is his handler so he is extra ruthless. I wanted to pain Aang as an easily dislikeable character so I made him rather dark. He is dispassionate about mostly everything because of the way Azula trained him, however, as you can tell; he's still got a good heart somewhere in there and that's what's going to be important to the storyline.


	2. What is her name?

He _did_ know her. He rushed to her and dropped to his knees. She was still shackled to the ground by her wrists and ankles. She looked as if she was nothing more than asleep. Her skin was still the same cinnamon brown color he remembered her hair was an elegant color of brown, chocolate he thought to himself.

He was scared to touch her. If he did and felt no pulse, he'd … he'd …. He didn't know what he'd do.

An eternity passed before he reached out to touch her as he inched closer to her, approaching her neck to check her carotid pulse, she suddenly sat up and bit his hand. Shocked at the action of the body coming back to life, Lee fainted and the avatar yelped in response and withdrew his hand

She sat up and yelled "get away from me you Fire Nation bastard! How dare you try to touch me!"

"I thought you were dead. I'm sorry, I-" Aang stopped because she had scrunched up her face as if she recognized him. Eventually she found him in her memory and her face showed it by giving a look of excitement and then immediate shock.

"Aang…?" She questioned

"Yeah, its me." Aang replied smiling. Could it be? After all those years thinking about this girl she shows up at his doorstep! That's fairytale, not reality. She was still so beautiful and her voice sounded like and angel singing to him. In his mind she was smiling, but, she wasn't and Aang couldn't be more wrong.

"AANG!" she said seething. "It _is_ you! I don't even know what to say, you bastard." That hurt. That really hurt. He then understood the full implication of _her_ being _here_ at this jail and _him_ being _here_ too. That's a problem.

"I thought you were the avatar who was fighting for _us_!" she continued "But here you are dressed up as some Fire Nation puppet!" Her words hurt and they really burned Aang as he took them in. He initially felt bad but as he processed her words he too filled with anger. He thought she'd be happy to see him! He was more than happy to see her! Didn't she see that? His anger was boiling when he responded.

"Bastard? Don't you realize who you're talking to?" Aang asked her authoritatively.

"Yeah, a bastard!" She repeated.

"You're asking for it you miserable peasant! I thought you'd be happy to see me!" Aang confessed

"Happy? To see you here? As my prison warden? In those Fire Nation rags? HA! You're more brainwashed than I thought, _Avatar!_ " Now that too bothered Aang.

"You'll pay for that you miserable bitch! I own you." Aang proclaimed

"You don't own a damn thing, Not even your own freedom." She stated despicably

Aang's anger swelled inside him until he heated his hand with firebending and smacked her across the face. Instantly feeling remorse, he moved closer to her only to be spat on by her.

"I can't believe I ever liked you." She said in an even cold tone.

Quicker than lightening Aang grabbed her by her face and raised his other hand to strike her, but something changed inside him. He lowered his hand and let go of her face. He backed away from her and said "It's unfortunate we've ended up here in this situation."

"I agree." She said plainly "Cause I'd love to kick your ass."

"I know" Aang said sadly, but then smirked "rest assured you'll never get that chance. However, let me make one thing clear, one way or another I will get the answers I need from you. I already got your friend Bato to crack and once he gives me all I need, I'll have him executed." her expression sank to a saddened one, however, Aang continued. "And if you're a good girl, I'll let you watch. If you're a bad girl, you'll join him."

Two guards had now arrived down the long hallway to grab Lee's passed out 5'8 frame and drag him to sickbay. Aang took pleasure in saying such mean words to the girl whose name he still didn't know. As he slammed her cell door shut he told the guards 116 is alive, but not to feed her until he says. He looked through the small window to see the girl sobbing he smiled, but them frowned. She was crying, hard. The light from the sun began to shine and the burn mark on her face became clear as day. There was no doubt about it, she hated him and she had a handprint on her face to remind him and her of it.

After finishing up in the other cells for the day, Aang walked back to the palace alone deep in thought. I didn't mean what he said about killing Bato and certainly had no intention of killing her. He was just angry. He couldn't find the emotion to properly cite, but he called it anger. " _How dare she call me out of my name."_ Aang thought to himself. _"Aang. Four letters. It's not hard to learn._ "

As he continued to brood he found himself in the royal palace passing by the Firelord's chambers. The Avatar and the Firelord don't exactly get along. Aang has a scar on his back to prove it, the memory of the traumatic event is mostly blocked out of his memory. As he continued to walk to his portion of the palace he bumped into prince Zuko.

"Hey Aang, what is wrong man?" You seem so down these past few months I've been meaning to ask you, but didn't really care enough to ask."

 _"Typical Zuko"_ Aang thought to himself. _"A selfish bastard. HA! And she called ME the bastard?!"_

"I'm fine Zuko no need for any of the fake concern you're spewing out" Aang said and continued to walk

Zuko scoffed and spoke "Dad, ahem, Firelord Ozai said you're invited to the royal dinner tonight. Be ready in three hours." Aang waved a hand in the air to indicate he understood.

 _"Dinner with the Firelord. What else is going to happen? Azula doing a surprise visit to my quarters?"_ Aang sighed and walked toward his room to see Lee was back on his feet awaiting the young avatar.

"Lee, you're alive. Great. Don't bother me-" Aang began

"Lord avatar, I must inform you that-" Lee began

Aang used airbending to speed past the chattering man into his room and shut the door. He let out a sigh then realized he was not alone in his room. To his chagrin, There on his bed lay Azula. The blue flame princess. Aang had an idea of why she was here. Azula shows up for two reasons and Aang can usually tell which reason based on what's in her hands. He examined her hands from a distance to see she had nothing in her hands. If there is a clip board in her hands it means she here for work. If there's nothing that means she's here for play. And Aang was in no mood for her racy sexual advances.

"Yes princess?" Aang asked in the most bored of tones

"Airbending is strictly forbidden in this country." Azula said in a fake stern voice - a clue to real intentions of this visit.

Aang sighed yet again "Princess, I really don't have time for this."

"Are you refusing my orders? That's the death penalty in this country. You know that." Azula continued.

"Princess what I meant was, I am being summoned by your father soon and I do not wish to upset the Firelord." Aang said diplomatically.

"Ah, a valid excuse. I'll be back to punish you for you airbending later." Azula still attempting to be sexy and left the room.

Aang and Azula have had "relations" on a nearly regular schedule. Usually Aang is all about it, but in these last few weeks he hasn't interested in that action in a while, especially with Azula. The door slammed with a thud with made Aang jump. It also made him realize how tired he was.

Still with his mind tied up around the girl in the prison tower with captivating eyes, Aang laid on the bed and thought of her before he went off to meet with the Firelord and eventually Azula.


	3. Where is she?

Sleep did not find the young Avatar as easily as it should have. After meeting Azula's "demands" last night he couldn't help but feel empty inside. She was still on his mind.

 _"Her."_ Aang thought to himself _"What is her name?"_

He needed to know. Not just for the sake of completing his objective from Azula, but for a more personal reason. She was so captivating and seeing her again brought about a new emotion Aang wasn't used to feeling. Another emotion she stirred that he could not properly name.

He thought back on their encounter and how mad she was for him being here in the Fire Nation. He did it for her! Didn't she remember that? When the Fire Nation came to South Pole he left with his head held high for her. She was his reason for leaving. He did this for her. He became _this_ for her.

His thoughts turned toward her anger.

 _"She was out of line! No one is to address the Royal Family or Avatar is such a manner! That too is grounds for death!"_ Aang thought. A policy that shocked him when he first learned of it. It seemed barbaric back then, now he threatens it almost weekly, however, he's never killed another person. Not even in battle.

His thoughts drifted towards his own anger

 _"I really was being a dick. I should apologize to her-"_ Aang stopped himself. _"She's a prisoner of war. No, you don't need to do anything for her."_ Aang paused. He couldn't believe he was battling himself in his own head over a worthless prisoner. A worthless prisoner with brilliant eyes and chocolate locks.

This was madness. He would accomplish nothing by debating this to himself. He needed someone to talk to, but who? If anyone found out about his feelings for this girl they'd surely send her to another prison to be interrogated by someone else. If Azula were to find out, the girl would be put to death. Both options led Aang into a sense of internal panic. There was only person Aang could remotely trust. Zuko.

Zuko had confided in him when his mother, Lady Ursa, went missing. From time to time that jerk could be a nice guy. Aang knew he had to be careful about how and what he used to describe this girl. Nothing too specific- obviously and nothing too vague as that would fuel Zuko's curiosity. Zuko held more power around the Fire Nation than Aang. It would be no issue for Zuko to do some digging of his own and discover the girl in question.

Was he really going to approach Zuko about the girl? Was he going to risk that? What would that get him? Zuko was a decent sounding board, but he could be rather unpredictable. Zuko was hard to explain in Aang's book. He was a mystery, but the closest thing to a compassionate human being in this palace Aang could "trust".

Before long Aang's thoughts unraveled and he fell asleep.

A loud banging sound echoed in his room making him shoot up out of bed. Aang assessed the room for a possible threat with his eyes and ears before he identified the sound as originating from the door. He groaned and let down his guard and slipped on his slippers and went to the door.

On the other side of said door was Zuko. Zuko held a smirk on his face, fully dressed for the day in his normal Fire Nation clothing.

"What Zuko?" Aang said groggily "You're not up this early often."

Zuko simply pointed behind Aang to the window where the sun was already high in the sky. Aang turned his top half to see what Zuko was alluding to with his finger to see what was so important. A nano-second later her understood. Aang had overslept and Azula, being the perfectionist, wouldn't tolerate his tardiness at the prison. Aang face-palmed and groaned yet again and turned back around to see Zuko walking off. Aang debated whether he should tell him.

 _"Can he really be trusted?"_ Aang questioned. He needed to make a judgment call and his choice was not to tell Zuko, at least not now. He needed to get to work and Zuko was usually laying about in the Palace with his buzzkill of a girlfriend Mai. He could tell him tonight. Aang turned to get ready as quickly as he could, but not without noticing Lee's absence. Aang shrugged it off and turned to get ready for the day.

After arriving 1 hour late to work, Aang greeted the main entrance guard and proceeded up the spiral staircase to see all the prisoners lined up outside of their cells.

 _"Oh crap! Today is Tuesday, inspection day!"_ Aang thought to himself. If he wasn't thinking about….other things so much he would have remembered this was going on today. He immediately sank into his work persona. He was curt and short with the prisoners burning and scolding anyone who protested. As he approached cell 116 he gasped a little. She was gone.

 _"Where is she?_ " He calmly approached her cell and looked inside to see nothing. Not a soul. No one.

How could someone move her? He was in charge of moving prisoners around. No one could overrule his authority except one person.

"She's safe." He heard a voice say sternly.

Aang whipped his head around giving up showing any bit of composure he may have had to see no one other than the blue flame princess. She was standing in the middle of the hall looking at him.

Aang allowed some silence between her statement before he started.

"Where." He began "I need her for further questioning."

"She's been moved." Azula countered. Aang knew where this was going. She was testing him to see if he developed an emotional attachment to the girl. But how did Azula select her? Why did she select her? Aang's questions were put on hold as he needed more information before he went into panic mode.

"The palace." Azula continues to be cryptic. Aang wanted to sigh for relief, but he knew it could be detrimental to her health.

"I understand," Aang said. "The incompetent guards thought she was dead yesterday and I didn't want her escaping." Part of him was being honest, he didn't want her escaping, but knowing she was safe was his primary goal in this exchange. Secondarily, he wanted- no- needed to know where in the massive palace she was being kept. Aang had to be smart about this, the last time Azula saw that Aang developing an attachment to a prisoner she snapped her neck right in front of his eyes. She a mother of four who had been rounded up with a group of Earth Kingdom rebels and sent to prison. She was innocent, but Aang was the only one who knew that. He could just tell. Call it an Avatar hunch. He took great care to protect her. Aang even went as far to give Lee orders to keep her fed and bathed as frequently as possible. Nevertheless, Azula found out and now the memory of the event serves as a reminder of Azula's power and his lack thereof.

A prisoner being held in the palace means one of two things: (A) she's a slave in whatever manner she is needed in. Even though she'd be inside the royal palace, it still wasn't a desirable job. The slave work could range from food, the cleaning, to even sex. Aang shuddered internally at the thought of her being used as the Fire Lord's sex slave. Many of which were beaten and battered after one encounter with him. The other option is that she is a high-risk prisoner. Being high-risk means they're vital as an information source, but not tend to escape. Normally they'd be killed and seen as more trouble than they're worth, but high-risk could also mean she is a high-ranking member of the resistance.

Aang's thoughts must have drifted too long because Azula spoke

"Is the information she holds vital?" She questioned, partially serious. "I can always have Zhao do it since the palace prison is his domain."

That tidbit of information served at two things for Aang she is not a slave, the good news. The other being that she was under Zhao's control, the bad news. Zhao was notorious for raping both the men and women who graced his prison cells. Aang knew he couldn't let her stay under his control.

Keeping his emotions and body language as calm as humanly possible, Aang answered the princess as flatly as possible.

"Yes. She's the daughter of Hakoda, she's bound to know more than she led on." A lie, as far as Aang knew, but he needed an excuse to get her back.

A sly smile slid across Azula's face. She was up to something.

"Good, I thought you'd grown attached to her." She mused out loud. Yeah, Aang had, but after one day of being here Azula found that out? No, not even she was _that_ quick to see that. Something was amiss, but he didn't have the time to think about it now.

"No, she's just another number," Aang said normally as can be. He motioned toward he old cell door and used his pointer finger to highlight what he was motioning to "1-16 princess. Nothing more." Aang said hoping that would satisfy her.

It did not.

"You don't know her name yet? Tsk tsk tsk, have I taught you nothing, boy?" Azula said nearly playfully. If you didn't know any better you'd think she was joking.

"I need time with her princess. She's well on her way to cracking."

"Ok, I'll give you a week. If she doesn't give the intel we need, I'll give her to Zhao."

Aang let out a sigh of relief. Azula's eyebrow twitched to indicate that she heard that. She smirked again

"And if he cannot break her, I- no…YOU will kill her. It's about time you get your fingers in the proverbial mud."

Aang did his best to hide his mortification. Too many thoughts were roaming in his head. He needed to get out of there. If he weren't in the Fire Nation he'd grab his glider and soar, but airbending was forbidden, he couldn't; in fact, the Fire Lord himself burned his glider in his hands when he was presented with the Avatar all those years ago.

"If that is what you wish princess." He said flatly before walking past her and yelling for all the prisoner to return to their damn cells. The prisoners complied and the guards ushered them into their cells. Aang watched as the princess began to walk down the hall away from Aang toward the other exit. She stopped and slowly turned to see the Avatar facing her

"Say it Avatar, you want to know where in the palace she is," Azula said with a candy-like sweetness oozing from her voice. "It's ok, you knew you had to ask sooner or later."

Aang said nothing. Azula reiterated "Ask the question. Don't worry I won't bite."

"Where is she." It wasn't a question. Aang wanted answers. Even within their cells, the prisoners watched the exchange.

Giving her trademark smirk Azula said "Level two, room 4."

Aang didn't want to think about where exactly she was, but he stored the information for a later time.

"You can see her anytime you want, but like I said one week." Azula said turning to face the exit and left the hall. Aang seething with anger used airbending to send a strong gust of air down the halls to secure the cells shut. All the prison door secured with a loud clank and winds so strong the pushed the prisoners back against the walls of their cells. Aang was mad and now the prisoners knew it too. She was playing him, but did she know that he knew?


End file.
